The U.S. Department of Energy asked Solyndra LLC to delay announcing it would fire workers until a day after last year’s elections, according to a House Republican staff report citing advisers for an investor in the failed solar-panel maker.
“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” an adviser to Argonaut Private Equity of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who wasn’t identified, wrote an associate in an e-mail. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd -- oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”
The e-mail was cited today in a staff memo written by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce investigations panel in preparation for a hearing Nov. 17, when Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to testify about Solyndra’s $535 million federal loan guarantee. The company filed for bankruptcy in September.
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